Letters: December 2, 2015

Plebiscites needed

When Saskatoon’s share of the south bridge project cost was announced, Mayor Don Atchison proclaimed its fiscal impact to be “only” six per cent on our property taxes and said ratepayers would be OK with that.

He didn’t announce the project’s operational and maintenance costs, or the soon-to-be-added police and art gallery monoliths. Coun. Tiffany Paulsen now finally recognizes the looming crisis.

Ironically, the matter was brought to council’s attention by Police Chief Clive Weighill in his annual financial pleadings to council when, in addition to the usual “We need more resources” pitch, he said more money also was also necessary to meet the increased costs of operating his new facility.

What audacity! At the time of construction of the police station and associated cost overruns, taxpayers were not apprised of these foresee operating costs but buffaloed by Weighill’s cry that the building would reduce costs by eliminating the force’s numerous city-wide leases.

I can’t imagine the consequences for taxpayers from the art gallery.

It’s time we returned to the days when taxpayers could express their support or opposition through plebiscites to such expenditures. This practice should return, especially for larger commitments by council as well on P3 projects where contractors’ commitments are only as good as long they stay in business. We may come to realize that these are just time bombs for taxpayers.

Unlike modestly advertised public information sessions hosted by the city, plebiscites command attention. Critics can forcefully bring their views to the attention of citizens while city management and partisan councillors quiver over the “What if?”

Arnold Bica, Saskatoon

Staff cuts ill-advised

Saskatoon Health Region CEO Dan Florizone said last week that he has personally looked at cutting some services and programs, and would present options to the board and the Health Ministry.

Did he talk to any front line staff about the difficulties they encounter daily trying to provide safe care for clients? He talked about addressing overtime costs, but did he speak to employees about how they work short when managers are directed to not to replace staff? Did Florizone talk to any patients who went through the system and utilized programs to keep them out of hospitals and long-term care facilities?

As a recently retired nurse, I would be interested to know the cost of the hours staff have spent being trained in lean and participating in lean initiatives that could have been spent on direct patient care. Has he considered how much SHR would save if lean was scrapped immediately?

The population is increasing the Saskatoon region, which has a changing demographic that will require more health services. Cutting front line workers and programs doesn’t make sense. It makes more sense to trim the salaries of some of the many highly paid personnel and kaizen promotion officers before reducing front line workers who actually provide the care people so desperately need.

Rae Nicholls, Saskatoon

Stay home if unwell

Do you ever wonder why no one can seem to shake “it?” According to many physicians, the reason is the constant stream of “good, reliable employees” with illnesses reporting dutifully to work and making everyone around them sick as well.

According to Les MacPherson civil servants “show a lack of motivation” if they don’t drag themselves to work, no matter how ill they might be (not to mention how contagious they are).

However, more and more private companies are realizing that germs belong in the home, not the office, and encourage sick employees to stay home. Plus, people are more likely to take more sick days off in the end because they didn’t stay home when they should have.

Going to work sick reeks of bureaucratic ideology over informed decision making. The federal Parliamentary Budget office recently reported that government employees use an average of 11.52 sick days per year compared to the private sector’s 11.3. OMG!

But thanks to MacPherson for reinforcing that totalitarian government way of thinking. Encouraging continual conflict among different groups of people is just what we need more of in this day and age.

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